Listen: NYC Retirees Leader Dismisses Arbitrator’s Filing; Vows to Press Fight Against Medicare Advantage

NYC Organization of Public Service Employees President Marianne Pizzitola. Photo by Joe Maniscalco

By Bob Hennelly with Joe Maniscalco

Last week, an arbitrator named Martin Sheinman delivered a 60-page opinion in favor of the Adams administration’s campaign to push municipal retirees into a privatized, for-profit Medicare Advantage healthcare plan.

But on this week’s episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Hour Marianne Pizzitola, president of the NYC Organization of Public Service Employees, says “no one should be fooled” by those pages.

“This document is simply his recommendation — it’s not binding and it’s not an order,” Pizzitola says. “No one should be fooled by this — he has no jurisdiction over this issue and that is our point.”

The retired FDNY EMT further states, “and if anyone — he or the city — tries to force what his recommendation is — it doesn’t have to be accepted. We’re just gonna keep litigating this.”

Listeners will also be treated to a killer Michael Bloomberg impersonation…

Hear it all now: